From Radio to Rustic Italian; Save John Tesar

TEXARKANA—Barbecue-loving Brit Gavin Cleaver took a chance on a Cracker Barrel during a recent road trip, and was, unsurprisingly, pretty disgusted. The lowlight of the meal? A dish of chicken and dumplings, which caused Cleaver to question, "If this is a Southern favourite, what dishes did the South reject?" Pretty bad, coming from an Englishman. [City of Ate]

FAR NORTH DALLAS—Recently unemployed 103.7 DJs Gene and Julie are setting their sights on restaurant ownership. Come February, they intend to open Battuto Italian Kitchen on Preston Road, which they describe as "a rustic, farm-to-table Italian neighborhood restaurant." [Escape Hatch]

TESARWIRE—Spoon chef John Tesar may have been eliminated from Top Chef: Seattle last night and subsequently eliminated from Last Chance Kitchen, but he's still got one more shot at redemption: Tesar implores his Twitter followers to tweet "#savechefjohn" to help him get back in the game. [@chefjohntesar]

[Photo credit: Battuto/Facebook]